The outbreak, Haiti's first in more than 50 years, erupted in the Artibonite River valley in mid-October and initially seemed to have been contained to central and northern areas.

There have been roughly 1,000 new cases each day this week and the death toll is steadily climbing, with 60 new fatalities recorded on Wednesday and more than 80 on Thursday.

Ten deaths have been recorded in the capital, Port-au-Prince, where authorities fear contagion in crowded camps housing earthquake survivors.

"If cholera cases continue to rise at this rate, we'll quickly be overwhelmed," warned Yves Lambert, head of infectious diseases at the main public hospital in downtown Port-au-Prince.

Most of the estimated 1.3 million Haitians living in refugee camps are in tent cities around the capital and cholera could spread easily in filthy conditions where scarce water supplies are shared for cooking and washing.

Haitian authorities have been warned to expect a whole different scale of disaster if cholera takes hold in the capital, much of which was flattened by a January earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people.

In his call to the Biloxi conference, Mr Barzilay said US health authorities were worried about the possibility of cholera spreading to Haiti's neighbours, including the United States, just two hours away by air.

On its website, the Florida Department of Health said travel to and from Haiti had increased since the Haitian earthquake, with travellers, including relief workers and local Haitian residents, visiting family in Haiti.

"Cholera does not spread easily in developed countries such as the US, but we want to be sure we do not miss any high-risk situations, like cholera in a food-handler, or clusters or outbreaks," the department said.

Florida has about 241,000 Haitian-born residents, 46 per cent of the Haitian-born population in the United States.

Hurricane Tomas, which claimed more than 20 lives in Haiti at the weekend, aggravated the situation as it dumped heavy rains that caused rivers, including the believed source of the cholera, the Artibonite, to flood.

The storm damage has increased concern about the plight of Haitians in rural areas, where many cholera sufferers are reported to be struggling to get medical help and remain cut off by the flooding.

Although easily treated, cholera has a short incubation period and causes acute diarrhoea that can lead to severe dehydration and death in a matter of hours.